11/14/14

This is a macro image of my Toad Lily in bloom before something ate about half the plant.  still not sure what was causing all the problems and why it was so bad this year, possibly the drought?  Anyway, the Toad Lily has such unique flowers, reminds me of an Orchid.  Apparently the name is due to the fact that some think the mottled look of the flower and that they prefer moist locations reminds of a toad.

11/13/14

Thinking of summer while experiencing this bitterly cold January type weather.  UGH  I hope this is not what winter is going to be like the whole time.  I had a Monarch visit my garden very late this year.  This was actually taken on the 26th of October which is quite late for them to be around and about the only flowers left for them to feed on were Marigolds and Zinnias which this one is perched on.  I used this image for the last one of my Split Tone Challenge and thought it turned out well.  It can be seen using the link in the About Me section on the right of the Blog.  I learned a lot about a process I had never tried before and even liked how the images came out.  :-)

11/12/14

Posting a bit early and quickly as we are going to a show tonight.  This is the lower part of Minnehaha Waterfall in Minneapolis, MN.  I was just learning long exposures for waterfalls at this point and I think it came out fairly well despite that.  :-)  I used this image for my Split Tone Challenge today which can be viewed over on G+ in the link in the About Me section at the right of this Blog.

11/11/14

I took this photo quite a while back in Minneapolis, MN on a trip there for work.  I had never shared the image but when I was invited to do this Split Tone Challenge, this bridge came to mind as I had seen other architectural type images that worked well.  This, of course is the color version but you can see the other at the link in the About Me on the right.  This bridge is in a park where Minnehaha waterfall is located.

11/10/14

Well, Autumn is over and arctic winter is on the way.  SIGH.  I high of 33 tomorrow and 16 at night!  This is January weather.  UGH
So in thinking of  warmer weather this is a macro image of a Zinnia in my garden that I used for my Split Tone Challenge today.  You can see that version in the link in the About Me on the right of the Blog if you are interested.

11/9/14

This is Cumbres & Toltec locomotive 463 moving cars around in the yard back in June.  I have been invited to a Split Tone challenge over on Google Plus and used this image as a starting point.  I had to Google how to even do a split tone.  I had seen images and kind of had an idea but for those who have no clue, this is a definition I had found:  Split Toning is an effect which has its origins in the days of film and it involves tinting the highlights in a black and white image one color and the shadows another color. The best results are where you use opposite colors for each, such as yellow and blue, green and magenta and so on.  If you are interested in seeing how it turned out, I think it worked rather well, click on the link of my name in the About Me section on the right of this page.

11/8/14

This is a sunrise I witnessed exactly one month ago today on October 8 while at work.  The sky had such gorgeous color that morning and I had to step outside and get an image.  This is not enhanced at all, it really was that vivid and lovely.  Of course even with having a red sky at morn we still didn't get any rain out of it but at least we got a lovely sky.